Epoxy Flooring Systems and Coatings

Daily Maintenance of Seamless Flooring and Floor Coatings

Sweep the floors daily.

If abrasive particles are present they should be removed by mopping with common household detergents and rinsed completely. Be sure not to use the detergent at a concentration higher than that recommended by the manufacturer of the floor cleaning material. Be sure to test any cleaner that you haven’t used before on a sample of the Seamless Flooring Material or Seamless Floor coating. You may want to be sure to prepare these samples as you are installing the floor so they will be available to you at a later time.

Promptly remove grease, and other contaminants from the surface of the floor

Be sure to rinse off all chemical solutions that may attack the surface.

Weekly Maintenance of Seamless Flooring and Floor Coatings

Smooth Systems

All seamless flooring and floor coatings should be mopped on a regular bases with a neutral soap or detergent, and completely rinsed. Be sure not to use the detergent at a concentration higher than that recommended by the manufacturer of the floor cleaning material.

Be sure to test any cleaner that you haven’t used before on a sample of the Seamless Flooring Material or Seamless Floor coating.

Mop should be rinsed often. Synthetic mops tend to work better on textured surfaces than cotton mops. The water should be changed frequently as well. Smooth floors are easily cleaned this way. It may be necessary to give extra care to areas that are subject to heavy traffic, hard rubber wheels, and steel wheels that leave marks. In these situations you can use the methods used for textured floors for these more difficult to remove contamination.

Textured Systems

Textured systems may require the use of a stiff bristled brush or floor scrubber to reach to bottom of the anti-skid texture. Severe problem areas can be treated as follows:

Grease Removal

Grease is typically removed by Tri-sodium phosphate (TSP) or other commonly available biodegradable cleaner. Contact Epoxy.comTechnical Support Department with your specific questions.

Removing Dairy Products

Dairy products should be removed immediately as they may cause staining on some types of seamless flooring and seamless floor coating systems.

Tire Marks Removal

Scrub the area(s) with a stiff bristled brush and using the same biodegradable floor cleaner that you are using to mop with.

Stubborn Dirt or Stain Removal

When you are trying to remove stubborn dirt or stains,allow the biodegradable cleaner to set in the area for a little while longer and do the work for you. Then completely rinse to area to remove the cleaner and the dirt.

Chemical Spills

You should always rinse strong chemicals as quickly as possible completely from the surface. Chemicals allowed to dry on the surface typically become more concentrated as they dry. That may cause the chemical to get concentrated enough to stain or even attack the seamless floor or seamless floor coating.

Waxing and Polishing of Seamless Flooring and Seamless Floor Coatings

Epoxy.com Epoxy and Urethane Seamless Flooring and Seamless Floor Coating Systems are very shinny and so waxing or polishing are not necessary. If a floor is very old, or has seen extremely high traffic this shine may dull. If it does then you can wax or polish the floor with standard commercial products that are designed for that purpose. Better yet, if this happens, you may want to renew or refinish your system – see below.

Epoxy.com Epoxy and Urethane Seamless Flooring and Seamless Floor Coating Systems are designed to withstand heavy traffic and wear. However, if there is enough traffic and/or abuse to cause the system to loose its shine, or show visible signs of wear, you may wish to restore the floor by “re-glazing” it. Before re-glazing a flooring system or coating system you need to do the following:

Remove all wax, oil, grease and other contaminants from the surface

Lightly sand to break the shine

Consult with Epoxy.com Technical Support Department for the proper material to re-glaze you floor. Be sure to follow all directions for installing the re-glazing material.

When in doubt contact Epoxy.com Technical Support at: info@epoxy.com or call us at 352-533-2167. You can also visit our website 24 hours per day at www.epoxy.com

Epoxy.com is proud to announce Product #659. This is a conductive primer that makes our existing conductive epoxy topcoat products even better. Here is summary of the material:

CONDUCTIVE EPOXY PRIMER

Epoxy.com Product #659

DESCRIPTION

Product #659 Conductive Epoxy Primer is a water-based, two component, carbon filled conductive epoxy primer designed for use with various Epoxy.com Conductive Systems.Product #659 has very low odor making it suitable for use in occupied buildings.

ADVANTAGES

For Use with Various Epoxy.com Conductive Systems

Maintains Electrical Conductivity Performance over the Wear Life of the System

Fast Dry Time

Low Odor During Application and Cure

VOC Compliant in all 50 US States, Meets USGBC LEED Requirements

CONSIDERATIONS

Substrate must be above 50°F and relative humidity below 85% for proper curing.

Substrate must be properly prepared following Epoxy.com recommendations and free of dirt, waxes, curing agents and other foreign materials

Excessive moisture in the substrate will require a moisture vapor control treatment like Product #830

APPLICATION

SURFACE PREPARATION

Surface Preparation is the most critical portion of any successful resinous flooring system application. All substrates must be properly prepared and tested for moisture as outlined in installation procedures or as recommended by Epoxy.com.

Pre-mix Product #659 Conductive Epoxy Primer part B prior to combining with part A. Mix 1 part A with 3 parts B for 2-3 minutes with a low-speed jiffy mixer, scraping sides and bottom of mix vessel. Continue mixing and add 6% by volume clean potable water and continue mixing for 1 additional minute.

Immediately spread and back roll mixed Product #659 Conductive Epoxy Primer at a rate of 250 ft2 per gallon with a short nap roller over previously applied non-conductive epoxy primer/base coat.Care should be taken to avoid puddles. Allow to cure minimum 12 hours (at 75°F) to maximum 24 hours before coating with specified topcoat.

Important: Test Product #659 Conductive Epoxy Primer with ohm meter prior to top coating to confirm acceptable level of conductivity is achieved. If test readings are higher than 25,000 ohms, contact Epoxy.com Technical Support Department for further instructions before installing specified topcoat.

Conductive and Electrostatic Dissipative (ESD) flooring are used on floors in facilities that need protection for stray static discharges. One example of static discharge is when you walk across a carpet in a very dry room in winter then touch a metal object or another person you get that little electrical zap. Most people find this a bit of nuisance. However if you touch a hard drive or a circuit board and create that same discharge you can damage it beyond repair. Worse yet if you get a static discharge in a chemical or munitions plant where there might be a potentially explosive environment the results can be a catastrophic explosion.

What is ESD Versus Conductive?

Conductive floors have between 100,000 and 1,000,000 ohms of resistance. Electrostatic Dissipative (ESD) floors have between 1 million and 1 billion ohms of resistance. Remember Ohms Law:

where Iis the current through the conductor in units of amperes, V is the potential difference measured across the conductor in units of volts, and R is the resistance of the conductor in units of ohms. More specifically, Ohm’s law states that the R in this relation is constant, independent of the current.

Simply speaking the resistance is the ohms of resistance that we are talking about above. The lower the ohms of resistance the stronger the conductive medium to conduct the static charge away. The lower the ohm of resistance the more efficiently the conductive/ESD flooring carries the static charge safely away. .This is one situation where the smaller the number the better.

How does Conductive and Electrostatic Dissipative (ESD) flooring Work?

Think of your Conductive and Electrostatic Dissipative (ESD) flooring as a grounding rod. A grounding rod is that metal rod that gets driven into the earth to increase the surface area coming in contact with the ground. You then attach your building ground or lightening rod to that grounding rod. The Conductive and Electrostatic Dissipative (ESD) flooring is much like that. It makes the whole concrete surface that the Conductive and Electrostatic Dissipative (ESD) flooring comes in contact with a large grounding plane, acting much like a grounding rod. In some facilities this effect is enhanced even more with the installation of grounding strips that the Conductive and Electrostatic Dissipative (ESD) flooring connects to the grounding rod(s). .

Where do you use Conductive and Electrostatic Dissipative (ESD) flooring?

Typically ESD flooring is used in areas to protect electronics. Conductive is more commonly used where there is the potential for an explosive environment. Most facilities that require ESD flooring can use conductive flooring as well. The reverse is typically not true. Facilities that require Conductive Flooring typically cannot use ESD flooring. The good news is that most Epoxy.com ESD flooring can be made to be conductive by first priming with Epoxy.com Product #671 Conductive Primer Sealer – www.epoxy.com/671.aspx.

Most Commonly Used Conductive and Electrostatic Dissipative (ESD) flooring

Epoxy.com has a wide variety of conductive and ESD flooring systems. Product #671 –www.epoxy.com/671.aspx – for example can be applied with one coat as a primer and one coat as a top-coating creating a highly conductive flooring system at a very low cost.

Product #1ESD – www.epoxy.com/1esd.aspx – is available in 15 colors. It is 100% solids making it an ultra high solids bis-A epoxy floor coating designed to provide electrostatic control properties to various surfaces including concrete or other nonconductive substrates. The use of a conductive primer will transmit conductive readings through ESD (Electrostatic Dissipative) Epoxy Coating for ESD Flooring Epoxy.com Product #1 if applied no thicker than 15 mils.